Thursday, December 6, 2012

Xanthi 2, Sydney CBD

Having been to Xanthi before, I was in the mood for some Greek food and suggested we go here to catch up for lunch. A and R readily agreed after our experience with a dodgy Asian waiter at Athenien Greek.The service here is always super friendly and upon arrival, we were given some samples of smoked eel croquettes with red pepper mayonnaise which were delicious and just the thing we needed to whet our appetite.

What I love about Xanthi are their Ouzomezedakia - small sharing plates! Sharing is caring (:

Alexander's Taste Of Persia, $13.00

Our healthy salad was first to arrive consisting of carrots, roasted chickpeas, dried apricots, sumac, and yogurt dressing. I instantly fell in love with the roasted chickpeas which were so crunchy and so much better than croutons! I am definitely roasting chickpeas next time at home. That salad was refreshing and the dried apricots worked surprisingly well with the creamy yogurt dressing which verged on the sweet mayonnaise side as opposed to the tangyness I was expecting.

Eggplant and feta Patties, $14.00

I adore eggplant and so do my friends! So it wasn't a surprise when all our eyes zoomed in on this dish. The crunchy and aromatic black and white sesame crumb coating on the outside was opened to reveal a smooth eggplant, fetta and basil centre which was so flavoursome I almost forgot about the lime and paprika ricotta underneath the patties! But when eaten together, these patties were wow.

Lahanika tiganites, $14.00

Zucchini flowers is something I've always heard about but for some reason, I had yet to try it. We were all curious enough to order this and eager to have a taste of our first zucchini flowers! There were zucchini flowers, oyster mushrooms, eggplant and artichoke in this one single dish! It was hard to tell what was what because they had all been crumbed and things all tend to look the same after that has occurred... But I think I managed to try a bit of each and they were all wonderful. I actually really enjoyed the artichoke! Which is another vegetable I've never had before. Ah, I am still young and yet to experience the wonders of the world.

Special of the day - stuffed calamari, $15.00

When the waitress mentioned the special of the day, we were all quite intrigued. The calamari was stuffed with rice, mince and mint leaves and was smothered with a rich tomato sauce. The stuffing really reminded me vine leaf dolmathes, but without the sour element. The tomato sauce was full of herbs and was heavenly. Combined with the soft calamari, I really enjoyed this dish.

Caramel baklava ice-cream, $15.00

I've heard wonderful things about the caramel baklava icecream so it was something I wanted to try! The vanilla ice-cream was heady with vanilla bean - we could see the black specks throughout which made it a really good vanilla ice-cream. None of that Home Brand business. The caramel was sweet and buttery and oh-so-divine. If only they sandwiched layers of baklava in between the vanilla ice-cream ;)

Banana ekmek, $15.00

We were really indecisive about our second dessert. We were tossing up between the Banana Ekmek and Garden of Aphrodite until David came along and recommended the banana ekmek as more of a sharing dessert so banana ekmek it was! There were two banana pieces which were wrapped with kataifi to make them very reminiscent of the banana fritters I've had at Ms G's! I loved the crunchy exterior dusted with cinnamon. Who doesn't love cinnamon? :D There was also a quenelle of chocolate mousse which was fluffy yet rich at the same time. The salted caramel was served as two small cubes and were very thick - almost the consistency of fudge but not quite. We were quite heavy on the caramel today weren't we?

We left very full at the end of our meal and very satisfied with the quality of the dishes. I would definitely say Xanthi s one of my favourites. Service is friendly and food is consistently delicious!

Sherrie Huang

TWENTY ONE years young. I live, love and study architecture in the city of Sydney. I love to dream, wander, laze and adore chocolate to the brink of addiction. I am a shoeholic who has a tendency to buy more than I actually wear.This is just a place to gather and post my favourite things and to record the lovely moments in my life so I can smile about them one day. Thanks for stopping by ♥